


I Miss You

by BubblyShip



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Altertale (Undertale), Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, F/F, Fontcest, King Papyrus, King Papyrus (Undertale), M/M, Missing, Non-Canon Relationship, PapySans, Regret, Sorrow, altertale, altertale fontcest, fontcest isn't canon but why not, runaway sans, they aren't related
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:21:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26113315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubblyShip/pseuds/BubblyShip
Summary: They say love is something that cannot be explained. Sometimes it fades, but other times, it only continues to blossom with the distance.This is the case for Sans and Papyrus, at least.
Relationships: Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Papyrus/Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 36





	1. Chapter 1

The throne room was cold.

Cold, too cold. The busted heater was evident in that, proving ineffective in fixing the lack of heat within the large room. Dust clogged the inside, displaying just how long the heater had failed to do its intended purpose.

Undyne let her yellow eyes dance across her surroundings, the expression of disgust unhidden with the shiver that ran through her body. It was too cold in here! It reminded her of Snowdin, the temperature dipping well under what normal standards would deem appropriate. She could almost sense heat drip from her body, melting away into the room.

With a desperate shiver, her hand outstretched to the heater, fiercely grabbing the knob. A twist, then another. Finally did the heater power on, dust spewing out like grey snow on a winter night. The warm air was like that of a refreshing cup of hot chocolate, the monster who had sputtered back from the original attack of dust quickly returning to feel the heat.

So it wasn't broken? Of course, she should have expected that. It was the heater of the throne room, of the castle, naturally it would be of the best condition, even if unused. The question soon rotated to why it was unused, Undyne letting her scaled hands glide across his bare arms in ways of soothing the heat throughout her body. Although their King was not inflected by the onslaught of weather conditions, not like Undyne's sensitive body to the temperature changes, the other rooms within the castle often did have their heat turned on. Then again, other monsters were in control of the heaters, not Papyrus. The throne room, however, was under Papyrus' control, who was the only one really to step foot within the boundaries of the walls.

It was likely that Undyne was the first to step within the room for a long time, as Papyrus often didn't invite too many people in. It was spoken constantly amongst the staff of the castle for no one to enter the throne room unless explicitly invited, which often didn't happen. Until this particular day, to which Papyrus had told Undyne to wait within the throne room to begin their weekly happenings.

It was a normal procedure, Undyne had first been surprised by how stupidly simple the meetings were. There was no complicated economics or political substance, the conversation typically leaning towards a meet and greet.

However, the location of the throne room was new. Undyne had never stepped foot within the area until now, much less ever taken a glimpse through the door. Ideas and theories about the throne room had become present in her mind during the dragging hours of the day, but she would admit, this was not what she expected.

Naturally, it was high and mighty, as one would anticipate from royalty. The throne was large and eloquent, and the walls consisted of the expensive structural details that matched with the many other countless rooms of the castle.

But the differences stuck out, much as the yellow flowers around the throne did out of the fertile soil. Undyne knew Papyrus wasn't one for flowers, so the presence of them there was questionable. Her friend and trainee, Asgore, adored them, so it would make sense if the little goat monster had flowers, but Papyrus never really spoke about them. The flowers were collected in the middle of the room, allowing for her to travel freely along the borders.

What did draw her attention was the other throne. The second seat hidden away in the back, displaced from the organization found within the rest of the room. A white sheet was carefully thrown over it, corners tucked neatly. It was easy to tell that the sheet was regularly used and adjusted, unlike the heater and the layers of dust now thrown up into the air.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

Ah, there he was. King Papyrus himself. He had walked in while she was distracted with the heat, his red cloak fluttering as he walked. Tired eye sockets quickly caught sight of her position, seeing the monster hunched near the heater with crossed arms.

"Um..." Papyrus said.

"It's f*cking freezing in here!" Undyne defended herself.

"Oh, oh!" Papyrus said, "Sorry, I guess I never really notice the heat. I have no skin, it's never really been a problem for me."

"That'd make sense," Undyne grumbled, straightening with another shiver. "But you should start using it more for people with skin. Judging by how you have another throne in here, you might want to use the heat for them."

"Ah, no, that wouldn't really do. He hasn't returned yet..."

"Oh, Sans."

Everyone knew about that, about the story. Undyne hadn't expected the other throne to be his, though. It happened such a long time ago, she wouldn't think Papyrus would keep his throne around.

Then again, the sad look he gave was quite an answer in it's own right. Of course he kept the throne, he still missed Sans.

The story was one everyone knew, it was quite known among monsters underground. King Papyrus and King Sans, they had been so close when the monsters first were trapped underground. They raised Sans' little brother, Gaster, who had met the first human and became friends with them.

Until little Gaster and Chara died.

After that, everything had fallen apart for the once happy family. Sans had run away, leaving King Papyrus alone to lead monsters. The stress was ever evident on his face, a constant sad expression drawing on his features. This happened so long ago, and it was clear he still missed his old lover.

"Sorry about that, King Papyrus," Undyne apologized.

"No, it's fine," Papyrus said, smiling at her with a slight pained expression. "It's fine for you to ask questions. I haven't really brought anyone in here for such a long time, I guess I forgot about the heat problem."

"I'm really sorry about what happened," Undyne said.

The topic of his old lover was never really discussed amongst them. Was it really Undyne's place? He was her King, she never really was sure if she could bring it up. Yet here they were, talking about him.

"He was so beautiful," Papyrus mumbled, gaze lost on the throne. "Sans was always calm, he always knew what to do. He always was able to tell me what to do, so I never had to worry about being King. Sans was fun, so much fun. He used to make so many puns and... I miss him. A lot."

"Hey, it's fine!"

The fish monster quickly approached her King, a hand laying on his back in a way to comfort him. Papyrus was a softie, Undyne knew that, but he was fragile emotionally. He always looked so sad, she never knew what to do about it.

"Was it the right thing to do? To declare war on humans?" Papyrus asked her, hand gripping his face. "Sans was so upset. He left, and it's all my fault! And now he could b-be hurt or-"

"No it's not!" Undyne said, gripping his shoulders to steady him. "Sans is fine, I'm sure he is! I know the searches didn't produce anything, but I'm sure he's fine!"

"I know he is," Papyrus sniffed softly, "He was always good at hide and seek when we played. I miss him, so much. I just want to see Sans again."

By then Papyrus was blinking back tears, leaning slightly against the head of the Royal Guard.

"We'll find him," Undyne said, rubbing his back smoothly. "I swear, we will. For you."

It wasn't unusual to see Papyrus sad, which in itself was a depressing truth. Undyne knew Papyrus had looked for Sans, for his beloved, but the searches came up empty, as did the Kings happiness. Leading a kingdom on your own was stressful enough, and with the loss of so many people that were important to him, it was easy to tell Papyrus had grief he was dealing with on his own. For him to open up to her about it, though, it made Undyne feel close to him.

King Papyrus was nice, but there sometimes was a sense of distance between him and others. And now, she knew why. No doubt this situation had been eating him from inside, and now he was finally revealing himself to someone.

"I just- I-I miss him so much!" Papyrus was practically sobbing now. "But I've killed all of those humans! He's never going to forgive me now! I can't stop now, not when we're just one soul away!"

"And we won't," Undyne said, "You have the Royal Guard to back you up, and we can perform more sweeps of the underground to look for him and to get the last human soul. We'll find Sans, and we'll escape to the surface. You're doing great as a King, Papyrus, and we're all here for you."

"I... I'm sorry, it's inappropriate of me to lose composure like that," Papyrus mumbled, gently wiping a few tears from his face.

"No, man, it's perfectly fine! I'm here for you whenever you need me," Undyne said, giving him a gentle hug. "Even a King has to let himself cry a bit, we're all just monsters. And I'm not kidding about the search thing, my Royal Guards need to train more anyway. We're going to find Sans."

"It's fine if you don't." The King gently smiled at Undyne. "I searched so many times now, I doubt any more searches would help."

"It'll still do good for finding a human the next time one falls down."

"I guess I'm too far now to stop."

Papyrus let out a sigh, gently peeling off his tear stained red gloves. He was probably going to wash them very soon, no doubt about that.

"You're doing what's best for the Kingdom," Undyne ensured him, "We need just one more soul to be free. And that human might come any day now."

The heater continued to rumble with more blasts of warm air, the distant sounds of the castle staff working emerging from the hallway door. With a few more reassurances, Undyne had managed to calm Papyrus down, taking one last glance at the hidden, second throne before the two made their way to the exit.

Where would Sans even hide?


	2. Chapter 2

A loose spider quietly scampered across the floor in a long and empty hallway, its long legs quickly adjusting to pull itself through a crack in the wall. The lighting along the hallway occasionally flickered, causing hints of darkness to flash across the broken walls and bare floors. Vines crept up around multiple pillars, engulfing the once beautiful architecture with hints of age and dust. Debris from the broken down remains of the once beautiful ruins littered the floor, thrown about mindlessly by gravity long ago, having long settled with the dust.

A black petaled flower deletequietly crept its way down the hallway, a scowl drawn onto his face with a look suited for something far more vile than a dandy flower. However, the flower found the expression suited him rather well, just as the dust did along the floor of the hallway.

Sadly, it wasn't monster dust, but it did show the diskept nature of the ruins. No matter how much that silly skeleton swept, one single man wasn't enough to keep it all under wraps. By the time he would finish cleaning one hallway, another would be messy. It was a painful cycle, one the flower was witnessing yet again.

The broom was carefully dragged across the floor, collecting new dust and debris and brushing them into the growing pile in the middle of the hallway. His cloak swished gently with each movement, pink slippers tilting to the right as he bent to gather a larger area under his thin and worn broom.

It was always like this, really. The ruins were constantly falling apart, and with no monsters skilled in building to fix the walls, everything was in a constant state of collapse. The walls were worn and broken, invading plants crept along the worn floor, and dust was constantly settling. No matter how much the single man swept and cleaned, he couldn't hide how fragile everything was, ready to collapse when it grew too old.

But this was to be expected. After all, the ruins were practically disowned by monster kind, they were degrading with the age of abandonment. With no one to tend to them, and with very few to live within the walls, it was a question of how nothing fully collapsed yet.

Maybe it was because of the skeleton.

Flowey let his gaze dance about the cloaked skeleton, memories of their old times spent together flashing in his head. Once upon a time they were a family, brother and brother, against the world. Once upon a time, though, Flowey had emotions. Once upon a time he was alive, and a skeleton, just like his dear brother.

But now, things were different. Nothing would ever be the same, not again. Not ever again.

He never did expect to find this situation when he returned from the dead. Never did he expect to find only Papyrus in the throne room, Sans' once proud throne shunned away into the corner, hidden under a tarp of regret and cloth. Newly reborn Gaster had cried out for his old brother, but only found a single King in return, which was not the King he was looking for. When he was brought back to life, Papyrus had been the one to scoop him out of the garden, comforting the flower.

In the past, they had been close. Not at first, as Gaster had always been protective of his older brother, and vise versa. When he learned of his brothers romance with another skeleton, naturally the little boy had been persistent in making sure Papyrus was the right one. Over a little bit of time, and some reassurances from Sans, he had grown to not only accept Papyrus, but grew close to him.

Yet, when he awoke, he didn't find Sans. He found Papyrus, ruling the Kingdom alone with no Sans in sight. And he quickly discovered his lack of emotions, something that drove him to leave, seeking out Sans when Papyrus had failed to prove useful.

Flowey thought that surely, when he found Sans in the ruins, the skeleton could help him. Surely his brother would bring back his emotions!

As if.

And now, all he did was sit back, watching the skeleton sweep the debris of the failing architecture into a pile. It was what he did almost everyday, sweeping new portions of the ruins each passing afternoon. When a new chunk sputtered out from the wall and clattered onto the floor behind him, Sans simply turned around, black and dark blue cloak moving eloquently as he added the new debris to his ever growing collection.

Sans was the only one who took care of the ruins. And while he was a good, effective skeleton, one man simply couldn't keep up with the entirety of the ruins itself. That's why the hallways were constantly lined with vines and dust, no matter how long he spent cutting and sweeping. Although small, the ruins still were a lot to handle for Sans alone. There were other monsters in the runes, such as Flowey, but the groups were small and numbered, not to mention fearful of the old King. No one bothered to clean, no one but Sans.

Though he didn't really have much else to do. Shunned by the ruin monsters, Sans had no one to socialize with. Flowey and him had once talked, but when his brother had proven ineffective, the two soon found themselves unaligned in goals and beliefs. Their once happy relationship quickly fell, especially as the skeleton was still grieving from the trauma that had taken place. Claiming to be his deceased brother didn't very much help.

There wasn't really much to do for his poor, pitiful brother but clean. The ruins had no connection to the rest of the underground, so Sans had no T.V. to watch or even speak of. His phone was old, he didn't have any access to the upgraded versions the rest of the underground waved around. Sans was confined within his own space, subject to the older days without technology. Thus, cleaning was one of the few options to bite back at the growing stale boredness that would make itself known.

Flowey had gotten to know Sans' routine by now, and it was rather pathetic. Understandable, but pathetic nevertheless. The rest of the monsters underground shared in friends and delicious, exotic foods over dinners in front of a T.V. Sans ate from the rations storied in the ruins, dinners consisting of hot pockets and ketchup bottles. His old diet, sure, but it was shared with nothing but the silence of his living room, and the occasional flip of a page. While other monsters went out to jobs and school, Sans would take his time to clean or read, sometimes claiming a nap if the day grew on for too long.

Sans had no friends to speak of, no social life to even brag to. The skeleton was no longer connected with the rest of the underground, he was effectively exiled from their cultures and political stances. Sometimes he wouldn't speak for days, or weeks, having no one to speak to but himself. The other monsters all scattered when he arrived in the hallways, and his pleas for them to return and have a conversation with him fell flat. He was old royalty, none would listen.

Even so, he continued onward with determination. Flowey soon picked up that determination to be caused by a collection of small factors, but one stood out. The need to protect innocent people.

His old brother always had been about justice. Innocent people being hurt was never something he agreed with. For those old train problems, Sans never would pick one or six victims, instead opting to use his magic to stop the train. The person who asked the ethical question tended to get a scowl on their face, but Sans would never allow himself to hurt someone innocent, even in theoretical situations.

At least it explained why Sans was no longer present in the castle. Monsters had collected six human souls, by the orders of King Papyrus. If Flowey had emotions, he would have been enraged to find the man he once accepted marrying his brother to be betraying him that way. Now, all he could do was simply giggle to himself at the ironic turn of his and Chara's plans. They were originally created to help Sans and Papyrus with their stress, but instead broke apart their relationship.

No wonder Sans would run, he couldn't handle the idea of his husband declaring war with innocent humans. Not a smart move on the Kings part, either. If they went to war with humans after escaping to the surface, the rest of the monsters would be wiped out. Flowey knew this, he had seen their villages, seen the humans strength. Yet he kept this information to himself, interested in seeing how events would play out once they escaped. It would be fun to watch monsters get destroyed because of Papyrus' overreaction to his and Charas deaths.

There wasn't much Flowey could do. When he had been brought back by Alphys' experiment, everything had long taken effect. Sans had ran away so many years ago, his return was already accepted as nothing but a dream. Papyrus had long collected six souls by then, but had refused to show them to Flowey. A smart move, but annoying one. Flowey, like Sans, didn't have much to do.

Messing with that 'amazing Asgore' was fun for a bit, but it would always drag on. Especially with that goat trashbag of a sister that watched over her beloved brother like a hawk, the one who prevented him from doing resets. It was annoying with how many restrictions he had. Sans was hard to trick as it was, and Papyrus was too griefed to manipulate. He never listened to the flower, too focused on his work to do much. Yet he always insisted on being stupidly nice, a trait Flowey really didn't like. Asgore was easy to manipulate and trick around, with that giant ego, but Toriel always stepped in, resulting in her halting Flowey's progress.

That's why Flowey often found himself in the ruins these days, burned out of ideas to explore. There were a few left over in his head, and the power to reset was always helpful, but to put those ideas into effect would be practically impossible. Tricking Asgore into killing someone was intriguing, but Toriel quickly caused that idea to have road blocks the flower couldn't bypass. Selling Sans out to Papyrus was interesting to explore, but trying to do so had its own hardships. Sans wasn't one easily fooled, Flowey could never trick him into leaving the safety of the ruins. And if Flowey just ratted Sans out to Papyrus, that didn't stop the skeleton from escaping and finding a new hiding place, much less breaking the small amount of trust Flowey had managed to place between them. Perhaps it was from memories, or pity, but Flowey wasn't really sure if he could go through with that type of timeline. Sans was already in a pitiful place, and their history together wasn't really something Flowey wanted to get involved within.

Flowey resorted to this for entertainment, the once skeletal monster twisting his petals around with boredom as he watched the skeleton. At least Sans didn't outright try to attack or insult him, not like Toriel did. That little goat knew too much, he didn't like that. Sans, though he didn't trust Flowey enough, was still nice enough to not attack, but not too nice like Papyrus and Asgore. He was a good middle, one to keep Flowey's sanity.

Perhaps, one day, they would meet again. Sans would find his once lover, learn to forgive. Papyrus was still good at heart, and they both did crave one another. It was a possibility.

But, for now, Sans continued to sweep the dust, willfully turning his back on the possibility.

Golden flowers bloomed across the ruins. Just as lovely as Papyrus' own flowers.

**Author's Note:**

> This book for this AU is going to have some adjustments, since I already wrote an Altertale fanfic with Soriel but still like this AU idea, so I'm mixing it up a bit.
> 
> Friisans is the creator of this au, and they're a shipper of soriel. I am not. I do ship Sansgoriel, but that's when Asgore is thrown into the mix, but normal Soriel isn't really my thing. I'm not going to judge, I can see how it's cute and it's fine they ship it. But they made it canon to the AU, and said if we changed their AU to say when we did, so here we go lads.
> 
> In this book, Paps and Sans ain't brothers. In the AU they were, but in here they aren't. In the AU Gaster was their little brother, but in this one he is Sans' little brother, Papyrus isn't related to him. I like bigger brother Sans so he's going to stick with Gaster, but Paps isn't related to the little guy.
> 
> This is also fontcest altertale, it's not incest though since they aren't related. This books about them and their relationship because I said so. If you want a canon Altertale fanfic where everything follows what Friisans created, check out my other Altertale book. It follows the Soriel, older brother, Altertale canon stuff so if you want to read a more canon version of that AU you can go check out my other Altertale book. And if you want related Fontcest, I also have a story on that. But this is just a lil altertale fontcest two shot where they just miss each other, nothing too big.


End file.
